Edmond Manahasa (Epoka University, Tirana)
Contributors: Fabio Naselli, Valentina Sapio (Epoka University, Tirana)
When the migration from sporadic phenomenon becomes a mass phenomenon, the topics of housing emergency, city safety and social inclusion reveal the significant gaps in the reception by a large European Continent. How to deal with the emergence of housing when first aid and reception centers are full or of limited size? Nowadays we can think of a temporary or even definitive solution thanks to the technological resources made available by the fourth industrial revolution: 3D printers and robotics. On these bases, this paper intent to study the sheltering structures for migrants in Albania and to provide a light solution for the dwelling’s needs through the 3D printed housing unit. The study gives a general overview of the reception/accommodation/care centers in Albania, which include a national centre in Tirana and smaller ones in the border gates of the Country, and furthermore the study provides information on their spatial features. Since the number and capacities of these centers in Albania is limited compared with the needs, the study proposes a 3D solution that for several reasons, especially related to implementation issues, can be realised in a short time period and with low costs. The research conducted worldwide on the experimentation of additive, extrusive 3D printing, at the architectural scale, is heading towards the use of alternative materials, and innovative construction processes with the aim of also reducing the environmental impact and achieving a greater sustainability of the construction process through the reuse and recycling of waste materials. A real revolution, both in the architectural-engineering field and in the urban, social and economic sphere. Emergency housing for migrants developed with 3D printers and robotics would be able to contain the housing problem in a very short time (48 hours per unit) and through an integrated process that puts design’ culture at the forefront in the smart use of new digital manufacturing technologies.
Edmond Manahasa is working since 2008 at Epoka University in Albania (English teaching university in Albania) as a lecturer at the department of architecture. Currently (from 2017) Edmond Manahasa is the head of department of architecture. He has been teaching the courses of History of Art and Architecture I, II, III [Arch 221, Arch 222 & Arch 321]and 3rd Year Architectural Studio [Arch 301 &Arch 302], which were must and as elective course has been teaching Theory of Architecture [Arch 474], Architecture and Identity [Arch 478] and Readings on History of Architecture [Arch 509]. His PhD thesis conducted at Istanbul Technical University is titled: “Place attachment as a tool in examining place identity: a multilayered evaluation through housing in Tirana”. He is focused in two main research areas: 1. Environmental Behavior Psychology, and 2. History of Architecture. Within the first research area he has conducted studies and supervised master thesis in the themes of: place identity & place attachment, urban identity through housing typologies, housing typologies, gated communities, city image and mapping of social space, post-socialist housing developments, public space, usage and evaluation of housing, and usage and evaluation of coffee shops as public space. Whereas related to the second area he has conducted studies and supervised master thesis including: Ottoman architecture in the Albania, Ottoman empire period mosques in Albania and Kosovo and traditional house in Albania.